Interviews: What would you want to ask? To be asked?

I often wake up two different people. One of me is saying something out loud or on a computer. The other is curiously listening/reading to see what Talker Me is going to say.

This morning I woke up three people. Listener Me was spying on a verbal ping-pong of an interview by Talker Me 1 of Talker Me 2.

Then Body Me got impatient and got up to walk into the bathroom to pee. And all four personalities merged into ME.

Sounds like mental illness? No, I think this is something most of us writers do, although perhaps in a more controlled way. We become several different people and put us into a setting where we act out a story. Sometimes we've got an overall plan for the story. Sometimes we improvise it.

We are unlike those unlucky souls in asylums who don't know their imaginary visions are from within themselves. We know we're creating them. As time grows by we slowly gain some (but never complete) control of our dreams. And we begin to fashion them not only for our delight but the enjoyment of others. We become Deliberate Schizophrenics - also known as Authors.

_____________________________

Back to the interview of Me by Me. My wakeup dream has now become a fun project - Laer Interviews Laer.

I want some help. What would you want to ask your favorite authors? What would you want to be asked if you were interviewed? Have you read interviews which gave you useful insights? Why did they work?

This past year was the first time I conducted author interviews. I started out with Liane Merciel, then Teresa Edgerton, Hugh Howey, and Mike Shevdon (sorry if I got any of the spelling wrong, I'm so bad at names...I know, that means I'm lazy...). I also did Ben Aaronovitch, but that didn't go well for some reason and I never got a final approval.

Anyway, they were a lot of fun. If you have a blog, I highly recommend contacting your favorite author and asking for an interview. Most are very amendable so long as you are mindful and work in with their schedule.

I've learned a bit about the process of writing that some authors go through and how it might help in my own writing efforts and I've also learned that these guys put in tons of work into their craft. But most of all, they write for the stories and that is very inspiring.

Reading Rob's and Mark's interviews and reviews are very helpful to me, too. They've been doing this for a long time and they seem to be able to tease out the heart of a story and bare its bones - good or bad. I think the questions I ask are too esoteric and convoluted, whereas their questions remain open-ended to allow the author to run with it. My next interview will try to emulate their approach.

For years, I used to fantasise about being interviewed on radio about my work. In my fantasy, the interviewer would ask a series of insightful questions allowing me to talk on deeper and deeper levels about the work...sigh...

When my first book was published I had about 8 radio interviews and several newspaper/magazine interviews. And I was shocked...

Because radio is (mostly) live, it seems to happen very quickly and you MUST be switched on. As soon as you waffle or flag, they'll terminate the interview and move on to something else. I quickly learned that the interviewer wasn't going to ask me the questions I wanted to get, so I had to bend the conversation around to what I wanted to talk about. Make yourself a list of the things you want to say - no-one can see you after all.

As for the press, the best interview I ever had went for about two hours. It was just brilliant - exactly the sort of conversation I had fantasised about. But when I saw the article? Shock horror! None of the really cool stuff I'd said was reproduced and the whole thing made me seem inarticulate and a bit of a dick.

Prepare! Interview yourself and write it all down so you can seem effortlessly articulate - especially on radio.